Yet it is probable that the progress of Christianity produced some effect in mitigating the severity of legal procedure and in shielding the unfortunate slave from the cruelties to which he was exposed. Under the Republic, while the authority of the _paterfamilias_ was still unabridged, any one could offer his slaves to the torture when he desired to produce their evidence. In the earlier times, this was done by the owner himself in the presence of the family, and the testimony thus extorted was carefully taken down to be duly produced in court; but subsequently the proceeding was conducted by public officers—the quæstors and triumviri capitales.[1432] How great was the change effected is seen by the declaration of Diocletian, in 286, that masters were not permitted to bring forward their own slaves to be tortured for evidence in cases wherein they were personally interested.[1433] This would necessarily reduce the production of slave testimony, save in accusations of _majestas_ and other excepted crimes, to cases in which the slaves of third parties were desired as witnesses; and even in these, the frequency of its employment must have been greatly reduced by the rule which bound the party calling for it to deposit in advance the price of the slave, as estimated by the owner, to remunerate the latter for his death, or for his diminished value if he were maimed or crippled for life.[1434] When the slave himself was arraigned upon a false accusation and tortured, an old law provided that the master should receive double the loss or damage sustained;[1435] and in 383, Valentinian the Younger went so far as to decree that those who accused slaves of capital crimes should inscribe themselves, as in the case of freemen, and should be subjected to the _lex talionis_ if they failed to sustain the charge.[1436] This was an immense step towards equalizing the legal condition of the bondman and his master. It was apparently in advance of public opinion, for the law is not reproduced in the compilations of Justinian, and probably soon was disregarded. * * * * *